OPINONS NEEDED: Have you noticed how technology makes people rude?

I am writing a research paper for school, and I want your personal observations & experiences with how increased technology (like personal
computers/smartphones) has increased rudeness in society--or not. I would like you to answer the question: Does increased technology make people rude?

Here's my introduction for my research proposal, for those interested:

For my research project, I am interested in exploring the issue surrounding rudeness and technology. While technology makes life easier in
many regards, it also contributes to changing social norms and deteriorating values. New technology in the form of personal computers has made
rudeness commonplace, especially among younger generations. Despite opening up new avenues to pursue literacy and self-education, cellular devices and
online activities desensitize users to polite social interaction. Nearly everyone has a smartphone and a computer—technology has permeated every
aspect of waking life. Today, there is an application for nearly everything. This level of distraction results in disturbing displays of groupthink
both online and in public.

Thank you! I look forward to hearing your views.

I agree with your premise.

You started to see it with 'people in cars' acting belligerently towards others when they would never do so face to face.

However, you have to do your own homework... and be sure to verify and read any sources offered on ATS. Also read up on determining the quality of
sources.

The issue with peoples a manners online is best explained by Gustav LeBon:

Crowds

Le Bon theorised that the new entity, the "psychological crowd", which emerges from incorporating the assembled population not only forms a new body
but also creates a collective "unconsciousness". As a group of people gather together and coalesces to form a crowd, there is a "magnetic influence
given out by the crowd" that transmutes every individual's behaviour until it becomes governed by the "group mind". This model treats the crowd as a
unit in its composition which robs every individual member of their opinions, values and beliefs; as Le Bon states: "An individual in a crowd is a
grain of sand amid other grains of sand, which the wind stirs up at will".

Le Bon detailed three key processes that create the psychological crowd: i) Anonymity, ii) Contagion and iii) Suggestibility. Anonymity provides to
rational individuals a feeling of invincibility and the loss of personal responsibility. An individual becomes primitive, unreasoning, and emotional.
This lack of self-restraint allows individuals to "yield to instincts" and to accept the instinctual drives of their "racial unconscious". For Le
Bon, the crowd inverts Darwin's law of evolution and becomes atavistic, proving Ernst Haeckel's embryological theory: "ontogeny recapitulates
phylogeny". Contagion refers to the spread in the crowd of particular behaviours and individuals sacrifice their personal interest for the collective
interest. Suggestibility is the mechanism through which the contagion is achieved; as the crowd coalesces into a singular mind, suggestions made by
strong voices in the crowd create a space for the racial unconscious to come to the forefront and guide its behaviour. At this stage, the
psychological crowd becomes homogeneous and malleable to suggestions from its strongest members. "The leaders we speak of," says Le Bon, "are usually
men of action rather than of words. They are not gifted with keen foresight... They are especially recruited from the ranks of those morbidly nervous
excitable half-deranged persons who are bordering on madness." en.wikipedia.org...

And in that same set of insights we can understand the very nature of, the typically deliberate design of collectivism.

As an observation of people in recent times, at least from what I've seen in public, everyone is on their smartphones, some with ear buds in, some
not. Most looking at their phones more than anything else. It's amazing there aren't more collisions as a result, and it looks like people are
becoming more like an extension of the technology, and less like individuals.

Social media is a lot of people's "safe space" where their words don't have any real consequences. Take a look at the comments in most political
threads, you wouldn't catch any of those members saying things like that to someone's face.

I'm a boomer, so I actually remember a time before smart-phones and computers.

The anonymity that the internet provides, enables people to become more explicit than they normally would. It is very liberating to be impolite. To
say things you'd only voice inside your head on any topic.

And that carries over, especially to a generation that has grown up on the internet. They speak in public as if they can delete what they said upon
reflection.

originally posted by: Subrosabelow
I'm a huge gamer nerd and I play MMO's. I have to say... online, people treat each other like garbage in gaming. No one is a person anymore. You're
nothing more than words on a screen. You have no feelings to these people. They have no empathy, no sympathy, and hide behind "but I'm just being
honest!!!" while they ruthlessly tear you to pieces with racist slurs, vile sexual references and outright hatred. I'm not talking about just having a
debate and the other side misconstrues everything said as an attack, ie SJW snowflakes looking for conflict. I mean those trollish peeps whose life
goal seems to be to hurt others and drag them down.

I can bet you that many of these people would never dare to act or speak like that in real life. People online can't punch you in the face for being a
douche.

It also concerns me how little people seem to know about others despite talking to them via text, chat, etc., every day. I remembering knowing my
friend's birthdays, favorite things, what they don't like, etc., but my kids... they can't answer those questions. Why? We have unprecedented ability
to communicate 24/7, but the average person seems more and more uninformed every day that goes by and we're more and more disconnected from
humanity.

I think you make an excellent point - that technology reduces us to objects or avatars in the gaming context. I wonder if each player's real time
face was displayed as part of the game board (or screen) and you could see the results of your virtual actions and speech if it would improve.

But maybe the point is that the anonymity of virual - reality allows us to behave in a manner that is more authentic. Perhaps we have always
'thought' those things but social conventions wouldn't allow us to act them out.

Perhaps this is how the human species can evolve into more authenticity.

Amen to that. Sometimes it's stunning what people decide to say online. Imagine if the decline in violent crimes is because the 'cyber pressure valve'
gives people a platform to scream?

That would be a saving grace if technology could pull that off. But as I walk down the street, deal with clients and just sit at my favorite
covfefe shop; people aren't happy; that's why they seek solace in their interwebs connections, alcohol abuse, drugs and gluttony... I used to make
an effort to engage strangers in banal, "think it's gonna rain" style conversation. Not any more...they'd rather play an exciting round of pokemon
than talk to me. I totally understand their response actually with the state of the American psyche. Bless their hearts....you know it's all
___ked up when even kids don't find Xmas pleasant. Cynicism cuts deep....

As odd as it may seem, I think the masses are happier when we are at war and have a well defined enemy to rally against.

Valid topic for today's world, so I will offer what I can, from my own perspective, which is that of an older person, who recalls what life was like
without a lot of the things people take for granted today. When I was born, color television was starting to be something that most people had,
though not all, to give you a time frame. My grandfather, for example, never owned a color set. He didn't see the need for one, enough to justify
the much higher price tag. Now, at this time, there were only three channels - the "big thee" networks, and maybe, maybe, PBS, so not a lot of
options for viewing. No cable, no VCRs or DVDs. He also had what was called a "party line" for his phone. Yes, home phone, land line - all that
anyone had back then! This meant that the line was shared with a few others in his area, so when you picked up, you had to make sure someone wasn't
already talking on it, and if they were, you would have to wait to place a call. Cheaper service than a private line, and he never complained about
it. So, that's the world into which I was born. Oh, and I watched the moon landing, live on television, as a small child, too!! And, no, we didn't
eat dinosaurs; they took too long to cook.

In those days, people talked at dinner, which was typically eaten at the dinner table, no television on, no phone distractions, and no electronic
devices. People on the streets would say "hello" to one another, and were generally aware of what was going on around them. Sure, some were rude,
but we didn't have the issues we are seeing now with technology. No phones taking all the attention, with people at a table staring at the phone, or
portable game system, or whatever, instead of conversing. No people walking head-down through a parking lot, so focused on a cell phone they don't
see dangers around them. Opinions, too, were expressed differently. Unless one wrote a letter to the editor, for a newspaper, or managed to get on
camera for some event, the only way to express opinions was in person, face-to-face, and if one wasn't polite, everyone would know who they were, and
what they'd said. The degree of rudeness we can find online would have been extremely rare.

Of course, there are the good aspects of technology as well. In those days, you didn't have a lot of choices for news. Whatever was distributed by
the MSM, that was literally all there was. No alternative media, no cameras in most hands, recording things, no massive overview of events,
exposing the facts.

Then again, and back to the negatives, so much is impermanent these days. In the past, the only way one could communicate with those far away,
especially if at war or something, was by letter. Those letters could be preserved, and be a part of history. These days, what do we have? Phone
calls across the globe, with no record of what was said? Online conversations?

Still. I have to say, that while technology does give some new opportunities for people to be rude, people themselves make the choices. If you gave,
overnight, all the tech we have now to the generation that fought in WWII, they wouldn't act like a lot of folks do these days. They'd never even
imagine that anyone would act like many do these days. The tech may make new ways to be rude, but it's still the people who are responsible for their
behavior. In the end, it is always about personal responsibility.

Maybe society's becoming increasingly ADHD? Most people wake up and put the TV on, check their phones, check their social media, check the smartbands.
Start texting, reading emails, playing music and on and on. Kids as young as two play on tablets/phablets so there's this growing generation of people
requiring constant stimulation and developing shorter concentrations spans.

There are still plenty of people with social skills and there's the other bunch who don't have many.

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